MANILA, Philippines?The pitiful stories seem one and the same. While medical science is breaking new frontiers in terms of longevity, the same diseases still plague a great majority.

Survival in this world, amid sickness and disease, is definitely a battle for those who value life. While the goal may seem to be how to live longer, an even greater challenge is to have a long, healthy life.

Back to nature

Someone once asked, if certain dinosaurs survived on a vegetarian diet, why cannot humans? Today, the vegetable is regarded as powerful medicine.

Certain vegetables have enzymes that release valuable vitamins, minerals and amino acids that are responsible for one thing alone?keeping the human body alive and healthy.

The absence of one simple enzyme can spell the difference between sickness and health.

Enzymes are pepsin that breaks up the protein from the food we eat, rennin that releases the nutrients in milk, lipase that splits fat, hydrochloric acid (HCL) that works on fibrous meats, vegetable and poultry.

Without HCL there could be problems like anemia, allergies and gastric complications.

Dr. Alan Nittler, author of ?A New Breed of Doctor,? emphatically recommends that everyone over 40 should take HCL supplements (Note: not recommended if you have ulcers. Consult your doctor.)

Dr. Omar Arabia recommends living a balanced life. An advocate of a plant-based diet, he has given patients a new lease on life through a medically supervised food plan.

At his Paracelsus Integrative Medical Clinic, he has helped increase the survival chances of medically challenged individuals with life-threatening diseases.

To introduce the idea of a food lifestyle change, he set up the Blissful Belly restaurant that prepares vegetable substitutes for kare-kare, adobo, mechado to a public curious about vegetable-heavy diets but not quite ready to go completely green and raw. Call 4265079 or 9296090.

Green and raw

Sometimes it takes a tragedy/crisis to effect change from within. Take the case of Cheloy Ignacio who, at the age of 21, lost her first full-term baby because of eclampsia (convulsions).

Suffering from high blood pressure, she had no idea her condition would compromise the life of her baby. At age 23, she suffered her first stroke.

She consulted several physicians who advised her to eat more vegetables and reduce the meat. While her condition improved, a host of other diseases cropped up?high sugar levels, unexplained fatigue, high cholesterol.

One morning she decided to take better charge of her life. Enrolling at the Alissa Cohen School in the United States, she took a one-month intensive course on ?Living Food Regimen.?

Today, she is 16 pounds lighter and has stopped taking her medications. After being given a clean bill of health by her doctors, she now shares her newfound lifestyle with the public.

Using organic ingredients only, she whips up luscious green juices, tasty pastas, oriental appetizers and the freshest salads for her friends and discriminating health-conscious individuals.

Designing a 14-day detoxification program, her mini catering business is now her new passion. More than just packing enzymes into the body, the diet promises a new, energetic lease on life, one that can give you an unavoidable side effect?a slimmer, healthier you. Call 6871121, 4093529 or 0915-2959582

Sweat is good

A healthy regimen requires a system for detoxifying the system. Ganban, which became the rage in Japan, has opened a new health spa in Makati.

Its detox philosophy is simple?sweat out the toxins the natural way. Inside their well-appointed facilities are separate spa areas for men and women.

Guests are asked to lie down on a black silica bedrock floor that emits heat and far infrared rays.

The effect is profuse sweating that stimulates the skin and lymphatic system to release unwanted chemicals and pollutants from within. Testimonials have been numerous from people who got healed of frozen shoulders, lower back pains, exhaustion, respiratory problems.

The black silica comes from Hokaido, Japan. It has been in the bowels of the earth for thousands of years.

Beauty regimen

Juice up with a combination of one stalk of fresh celery and one cucumber. Add half a green apple, peeled. Put in the blender. Use the other half of the apple. Crush and rub on your face as a mild exfoliant. Leave on for three minutes. Rinse with cold water.

Affirm today: ?Better health is mine today.?

Love and light!

Reference: ?The Vitamin Bible for the 21st Century,? by Earl Mindell